Rant

I drove two miles to the grocery store late last evening. There was hardly any traffic, but the three cars I ran into, sorry, 'encountered', were all driven by insufferably rude idiots. I don't know what started it, perhaps I was just a bit irritable, but when I got home I put on a show for my family detailing loudly the exaggerated faults of these three morons. When I was done, I immediately calmed down. In point of fact, none of these three did anything that was really dangerous. A little rude perhaps, or maybe not technically within the law, but even I slip up occasionally.
    This morning I'm reading a post by Dustbury, and he points to an article about Gamergate. I'm not sure whether Gamergate is a website or an event, ala 'Watergate', but the crux of it seems to be that a bunch of people were posting rude remarks on the internet ANONYMOUSLY. Well, shit, that explains that.
    I've never quite understood this anonymous business. When I was five or six years old I wanted to be called 'Steve Donovan' (Western Marshall). When we moved to Bexley I decided to change my name from 'Charles' to 'Chuck', but that was simple pragmatism, not because I liked the name. Every class at Bexley involved taking out a new sheet of paper and writing your name and date at the top. Since there were like six or seven classes every day, and since 'Charles' has seven letters and 'Chuck' has five, this saved me writing a dozen letters every day. That may not be much, but like seven and a half cents an hour, it adds up over time.



    It's bad enough that I have to keep track of umpteen different logons and passwords. For all the nonsense ones (i.e. ones not involving money) I try to use the same ones, but that doesn't always work. Seems like every website assigns you a new logon and has their own requirements for a password.
    In any case, if someone says something you don't like, and they do it anonymously, just press the DELETE key. Don't give them the satisfaction of getting irate, because whether they know it or not, that is exactly what they are looking for: rage to fuel their rage, rage to justify their rage. Nothing worse for them than being ignored.